The Forest Service road system is oversized and poorly maintained. This system of old roads – more than 8 times as long as the 43,000-mile U.S. interstate system – cannot be maintained. The Forest Service can only afford to maintain about 20 percent of the system, resulting in a maintenance backlog of $5 billion to $8 billion. This problem makes reducing the road system, also called right-sizing, an important solution.

The current system is wrong-sized

Our national forest road system exploded in size starting in the early 1980’s when timber production boomed. The timber demand from our national forests has since diminished, leaving many of the roads abandoned and in disrepair.These damaged roads pollute streams that sustain our fisheries and provide communities with clean drinking water. In fact, 66 million people and 3,400 communities rely on national forests for their drinking water.

What is our goal?

The Wilderness Society works with surrounding communities and the Forest Service to reduce the road system. Instead of the broken, outdated system we have today, we need a road system that:

Allows for clean water

Facilitates sustainable recreation and forest management

Minimizes disturbances to wildlife habitat

Is affordable to manage

Getting to a right-sized road system

In order to achieve a properly-sized road system, the Forest Service needs to do three things:

Conduct a science-based analysis to determine which roads are necessary and which are unneeded and can be reclaimed.

Not all roads are equal – some are more harmful to water and wildlife than others. The Forest Service needs to prioritize which roads should be reclaimed first.

Turn our research and words into action. Take unneeded roads out of commission and maintain needed ones